Tech Trends for 2015
Now that we’re into the new year, it is worthwhile to have a look at what industry-watchers and analysts are forecasting as being important and significant in 2015. Here is a summary of what some of what is being said regarding 2015 Technology Trends.
Gartner – Top 10 ICT Trends
Gartner, the IT research firm focuses on three themes: the merging of the real and virtual worlds, the advent of intelligence everywhere, and the technology impact of the digital shift. This all seems quite vague and woolly, but in a nutshell, these are the key concepts:
Intelligent Devices & Machines: Gartner sees enterprises having to catch up with the consumer world in providing services over devices they do not control, while the Internet of Things will drive new business models. Additionally, 2015 will see the rise of the ‘smart machine’, extending the advances already made in automation, smart assistants such as Cortana and Siri, and drones.
Cloud powering all. The growth of smart devices needs to be matched by a similar growth in analytics to cope with the deluge of media, sensors and social network data being produced. Similarly, the plethora of devices being accessible to a single user will see services increasingly being hosted in the cloud to be able to scale and support the span of all devices, often simultaneously (e.g. over TV, games console, wearable, tablet etc.)
Security. While IT companies have become used to applying a Fort Knox model to their enterprise, this model becomes increasingly unfeasible in a world where users are interacting with a multitude of environments – such as the home, car, smart city infrastructure, work environment, retail outlets etc. Gartner sees a more nuanced approach to security emerging, one that is context aware and adaptable to the environment and driven by the needs of the individual applications.
IDC – Some more ICT Trends
Not to be outdone, last month IDC also released its predictions for 2015. Its themes on Cloud-centric solutions, Internet of Things, 3D printing are similar to Gartner’s but additionally makes the following predictions:
- Wireless data will become the largest segment of telecoms spending
- Smartphones and tablet spending will reach $484billion, but wearables will underwhelm. The growth in consumer apps will slow, while focus will shift to enterprise apps
- Rich media analytics (audio, video and images) will be one of the key growth areas in Big Data
- Threat Intelligence as a service will be one of the main growth areas in the enterprise
- Chinese players, including Alibaba in e-commerce, Tencent in Social and Baidu in search will expand their global reach, hot on the heels of Huawei, while Chinese smartphone makers will capture more than a third of
Wired – Top Consumer Electronics Trends
Wired has a look at what is going to be big in the consumer electronics space, based on what is being presented at CES in Las Vegas. Other than the obligatory TVs, Wired highlights the latest connected car offerings from the main auto manufacturers as well as Google and Apple, connected home solutions, wearables, 3D printing and robotics. This final category, which includes the latest in drone innovation is probably the area seeing most exciting change and innovation.
CCS Insights – Industry movers and shakers
Never shy to make bold predictions, analyst firm CCS-Insight has made a number of predictions on tech industry shake-ups. Google features prominently and are set to purchase GoPro as well as possibly Netflix, while Vodafone will acquire Sky. A blog in the Financial Times has a good overview of these, and suggest to return to these at the end of the year and see how they fared.
- The consumer 3D printing bubble bursts.
- Google buys GoPro.
- Despite Apple’s entrance, wearables remain a highly fragmented market until at least 2017.
- Internet acquisitions will occur at multiples higher than WhatsApp’s.
- European regulators become more sympathetic to mobile operators.
- Western companies acquire internet players in the East during 2015.
- A major Web player buys Netflix in 2015.
- Google introduces a subscription-based video streaming service in 2015.
- Vodafone acquires Sky in 2015.
- Passwords as we know them become obsolete by the end of 2018.
The Verge – An ever eclectic mix of predictions
And finally, in true style, The Verge offers quite a mix of predictions, which are so varied that it is difficult to summarise them concisely. Perhaps it is being premature by opening with Self-Driving Cars, though is probably right to expect not much new to happen in the smartphone world. Opinions are provided on cameras (looking bleak), Internet of Things (fragmented, needing common standards), Intel’s new Broadwell chip (exciting, really!), Smartwatches (disappointing) and virtual reality headsets (making progress). You will really have to read the article to make some sense of it all though!